everything but the girl

For those who don't, what movie(s) are you seeing this weekend? We may be doing Tin Tin tonight, and my dad wants to take the boys to see Warhorse. Which I want to see as well because, well, Hiddleston (and Cummerbatch) but I may not get to. Back to the Muppets for me, which is ftw too.

If you aren't Christmassing and have some free time, Ascendio Formal Programming submissions are due in February, so winter break/the holidays are a perfect time to think about what you want to
present on - or even give the programming chairs (Anastasia of No LJ and femme_quixotic a fantastic gift by submitting a proposal.

Off to finish the ginger cookies and latkes! Interesting food combination; goes well with Chinese food.

( Why didn't anyone tell me there was a new Tori Amos song called *Pink & Glitter*? )

I had to learn about it while reading MORE while getting my hair cut today.

Shower the world with pink if you please...

Methinks I have a new theme song? And some new inspiration for tweaks to my Yuletide fic!

As it's now December 24 in parts of the world, here's an encore posting of the two Christmas vids I made last year. I wish I'd had time to do another one this year but I've been so swamped the last two months that I haven't been able to finish a single vid, and winter break this year isn't exactly break-filled for me.

Since I'm Jewish, I don't really have "traditional" favorite Christmas songs, but I absolutely adore "All I Want for Christmas" - the Mariah original, the Olivia Olsen version from Love, Actually and the vaguely recent My Chemical Romance version, which is the one I used in both vids last year.

( All I Want for Christmas - Supernatural version )




( All I Want for Christmas - Harry Poter version, featuring Lord Voldemort )

Off to finish gift wrapping, and possibly going to brave Costco today, if they've re-opened since the fire that closed them on the 19th, because we are in need of rugelah, and theirs is the best in the world. Or at least, the best in Florida. Rockland County Bakery in NY is probably the best in the world.

Then, it's time to make the sweet potato pancakes (if I can find the only recipe that works) for family get-togethers tomorrow and Thursday. Oooooh, I love it when Chanukah and Christmas overlap!

It's been a very vidding week for me - I showed some friends my Harry Potter Christmas video to All I Want for Christmas, and today was the reveal-day for the vid I made for titti last week as a teaser gift in spn_holidays - All I Want for Christmas, Supernatural-style (again using the My Chemical Romance version of the song).

All I Want for Christmas Is You Title: All I Want for Christmas Is You Performed by: My Chemical Romance Fandom: Supernatural Rating: PG-13, just like the show Pairing: Sam/Dean Available at: YouTube and for download on Megaupload. Summary: Spoilers for SPN 3.08. It's a very supernatural Christmas, and Sam realizes that all he wants for Christmas is... Thanks to cathybites for the gorgeous dvd cover to the left!

( Video behind the cut )

So many thanks and sparkles of appreciation to wendywoowho, cedarlibrarian and gwendolyngrace for beta comments!

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Today, we avoided stores of all types, and started a new Tandy Family Tradition for December 24 - we went to the local bowling alley and everyone from Catie to Aaron had a terrific time bowling a few frames and enjoying the chicken skewers and home-style potato chips they serve. I think we might do it every year, unless we can convince the local JCC to rent the whole place out next year for the whole of Christmas Day. The kids may go see The Waterhorse tomorrow; otherwise it'll be a day of friends coming over to wii and bake brownies and watch a few Disney films.

Who's going to be around tomorrow? Would people be interested in some sort of round-robin/drabble/drawble/quickvid thing tomorrow?

[Poll #1111014]

I almost managed NaPoBloMo - I posted every day until I think the 28th, when I got caught up in SpellCast stuff, and sorta forgot about it until the next day.

But the new episode of SpellCast is now up here - with elanor_isolda's interview with the Phelps brothers, who play the Weasley twins, and what I think is one of the coolest, most fascinating interviews at least of the year - gwendolyngrace attended the MIT Futures of Entertainment conference late last month, and had a chance to interview Diane Nelson, lately the Executive Vice President of global brand management and strategized worldwide distribution for Harry Potter, about her thoughts on fans, fandom and fan "ownership" of movie and book properties. Look for a transcript of the interview sometime this weekend, but of course, you can listen to it now via iTunes or the SpellCast site itself. Special kudos to Josh for an amazing job editing two episodes in one week, and I think we're back on schedule now, squee.

Now that it's finally December, I feel more holiday-like. It's difficult in Miami when it's on the warm side - back in mid-November when it was in the 50s I was really dreaming of a White Christmas, but while it's possible that Orlando may get some flurries this winter, the likelihood of us getting it down here is maybe one in ten thousand. We had snow back in 1977, and none since. But every 29 years would work for me.

So if you want a holiday card, click here and leave your name & addy - it's all screened there so I didn't have to screen comments on this post. If you don't want a snail-mailed card, just leave your email address and I'll send you a virtual card instead.

And I'm going to jump on the Holiday Wishes bandwagon:

STEP ONE
- Make a post (public, friendslocked, filtered...whatever you're comfortable with) to your LJ. The post should contain your list of 10 holiday wishes. The wishes can be anything at all, from simple and fandom-related ("I'd love a Snape/Hermione icon that's just for me") to medium ("I wish for _____ on DVD") to really big ("All I want for Christmas is a new car/computer/house/TV.") The important thing is, make sure these wishes are things you really, truly want.

- If you wish for real life things (not fics or icons), make sure you include some sort of contact info in your post, whether it's your address or just your email address where Santa (or one of his elves) could get in touch with you. [Note: Your home address is not required!]

- Also, make sure you post some version of these guidelines in your LJ, or link to this post (it'll be public) so that the holiday joy will spread.

STEP TWO
- Surf around your friendslist (or friendsfriends, or just random journals (ETA or the holiday_wishes Community) to see who has posted their list. And now here's the important part:

- If you see a wish you can grant, and it's in your heart to do so, make someone's wish come true. Sometimes someone's trash is another's treasure, and if you have a leather jacket you don't want or a gift certificate you won't use--or even know where you could get someone's dream purebred Basset Hound for free--do it.

You needn't spend money on these wishes unless you want to. The point isn't to put people out, it's to provide everyone a chance to be someone else's holiday elf--to spread the joy. Gifts can be made anonymously or not--it's your call. There are no guarantees with this project, and no strings attached. Just...wish, and it might come true. Give, and you might receive. And you'll have the joy of knowing you made someone's holiday special.

1. Regulus/Barty Junior fic! In fact, any Regulus fic, except maybe no Regulus/Hagrid

2. Recs for a region-free DVD player that's under $60 US

3. Tiny-denomination coins from outside the US and Canada - like, the equivalent of a penny. My kids like them but while it's relatively easy to find larger denominations here in Miami, smaller ones are hard to get one or two of.

4. Tickets to this.

5. For more people to submit essays to HPInkPot, no matter when they were written, as you can indicate pre-OotP or pre-HBP-ness.

6. A release date and/or title for Book Seven; if it gets announced on my birthday, like OotP was, so much the better.

7. For you to listen to SpellCast and vote for it on Podcast Alley.

8. A few people to help build stuff in SecondLife

9. Peace on earth and goodwill in fandom, online, and IRL.

10. For you to tell me one thing you wish for in the new year.